very fair and very reasonable from the photographer. you can offer to buy the raw files but they will be much more.

we provide a service with a end product that has our name attached to it. thats why you can’t have the unedited photos. its the same for weddings and any other commercial work done for big brands. some brands do pay for the ability of having the raws so they can edit it themselves and that premium is hundreds to thousands PER raw.

you are also choosing the 15 BEST from 300. why do you need another 20-30 photos that most likely look almost the same? you want to hang up the BEST photo of yourself in your house not 1 best and 20 mediocre ones.

1. as many as possible
2. ALWAYS if possible. some larger companies don’t do them like fortune 500 companies unless its a very big production and you have the leverage.
3. try to get a deposit to save the shoot date. get paid day of shoot. additional pay for additional edits usage rights etc after shoot and delivered assets. bigger companies will do net 15 net 30 net 60 net 90 but try to keep it down to net 30 unless they are paying like $50,000+
4. chat gpt
5. you also will need a SOW which is a summary of work which is like the contract but a summary without the legal stuff.

this is something you ask BEFORE the shoot. like much much before. it should be in the contract.

some photographers have a specific style that clients are hiring them for but that should be put in writing. some clients just think your stuff looks cool BUT want it a different way like cooler or warmer or grainy etc almost like your a graphic designer almost but its baked into the photo edit and i’m happy to oblige to that for my day rate , edit fees and usage fees. :)

i do like 90/10. i mostly share personal stuff on to instagram stories (like me on location or me meeting a cute dog or me and my 13 ounce bone in rib eye) , and post my work (portraits, bts, campaigns, etc) on the feed. however i will throw photos of myself in with my work if i’m doing like a 10 photo swipe post. usually its me and the model on set or its a bts of me shooting the model that my assistant takes for me. just makes you more personable and allows potential clients to see who they are hiring besides the actual work. i get a lot of work from instagram and a lot of the times they say “its good to see you’re not a weirdo before actually meeting you” or things of that nature. since i shoot a lot of boudoir type stuff for onlyfans or playboy models.

“we pay you a salary so you don’t have to do that stuff”

perfect opportunity to uno reverse card them

“well looks like you aren’t paying me enough because i have to do this stuff, maybe we should talk about giving me a raise so i don’t have to do this stuff…”

since you are new to this let me grind this into you now.

please make your life and the clients life easier and let the paying client choose which final photos they want. this will save you so much time and headache having to go back and edit different photos because you didn’t know they hate the top left corner of their face and all the photos you chose have that in it.

i know you are shooting a parade float but this applies to anything going forward. because their marketing team might be looking for something specific in the shots that you don’t know about. go through the photos first and YOU remove photos that YOU don’t want your name associated with then you send the rest in low res JPG with your watermark nice and big across the entire center of the photos. then you let them choose the agreed upon number of finals and you edit only those.

example. they want 12 photos. you take 100 photos. you narrow down to 30 BEST photos. you let them choose between those 30 BEST. now whatever they choose you will be happy with because you already chose it. everyone wins.

if they don’t like any of those 30 then… well you got a bigger problem…

i can’t tell you how much to charge because i don’t know what market you are in and the going rates in that market but if your work is good then charge accordingly.

i know people who go around and do this for cheerleading competitions. they charge $100 per photo printed and the parents pay it if its a good photo of their kid that they won’t get again. they leave these competitions with thousands. but there are others so its quite competitive.

you are undervaluing your time and skill WAAAAAAAY to much if you think your work is only worth $1 a photo. at $1 a photo you might as well not do this and work at starbucks. you would make more money.

if your work is good enough people will pay for it. you don’t need to trick them into working with you. something tells me your work is not up to par.

also i feel like this post is a phish for his discord to sell some marketing packet or something.

i preach this all the time. let the paying clients choose the final images! your life will be sooo much easier!

if you have a certain style that is specific to the way you shoot then you have to relay that to them and hope she understand and if she doesn’t then you just bite the bullet give her the photos that she wants and ask her not to tag you if she posts them cuz it doesn’t fit your style. all of this should be talked about before hand and also put into a contract. you should have a contract for any shoot even if its free or $5.

then never work with her again unless the rate is much much much much higher.

since you are only 6 months into your journey i’ll tell you this… most of the time the people who are the cheapest are the hardest to work with. so set your rates accordingly to the market.

you’ll have a client spending $1,000 call you day and night asking for this and that and will never want to pay you then you’ll have a client spending $10,000 who will pay you right away and will email you “thanks” after you deliver the finals and never hear from them again until the next time.

make a contract and a sow (summary of work) for all jobs. ask for deposits to save a shoot date. generally its 25-50%. state when the remainder will be paid day of shoot, before final delivery, net 15, net 30… put that in the contract.

contract contract contract and model releases.

don’t know how to write one? google it or use chatgpt to do it for you.

i agree with you and you talking about a contract lets me know you’ve been in this for a long time i’m just stating it for the newbies, i have talked to many clients who have said “this photographer posted these photos i never approved or that they don’t even have”

i mean its good for me because i’ll get a stream of new clients from photographers breaking their clients trust.

and to be clear this is paid work not collabs which i feel you have a bit more freedom because its a mutual agreement to work together vs a client hiring you.

of the selected photos yes but not for ANY photo. you’ll lose tons of clients if you start posting photos of them they don’t want out there.

i feel because the client paid you for the shoot although you do own the copyright it should be up to the client if an image of them is out there. after you do the work for the client and send them all the finals that they have selected and paid for. i would wait a bit maybe 4-6 weeks then reach out to the client and say… "hey these images i really do love that you did not purchase but i would like to use for my book and social. i’ll send them to you at no additional cost.

that way you give them the option and they get additional images for free but don’t feel bad about just dishing out money for images just the other day and now you are giving them free ones.

bruh never send high quality proofs. i send my selects at 25% quality. and put your watermark straight through the center of the image always. that way if they really want to remove it, they cant just crop it out. sure with AI now you can almost just remove it but the closer it is to the faces the harder it is for AI.

first red flag for me is that they didn’t let you choose your final images. you’re the paying customer you should be able to select the final pictures you will receive.

to answer your question it is normal but only if the client is asking for something completely different then from the original direction. but if they want something slightly warmer or cooler or change in tint i don’t charge for that. i personally allow 1-2 minor adjustments for free before i do charge additional edit fees.

i feel like this is one of those areas where if you have to ask… you shouldn’t be doing it

i don’t get what the problem is? this is how 99% of people on instagram connect. check out his work if its legit and your friends didn’t say anything bad then i’m sure you’ll be fine.

i’m sure it just took him awhile because he’s mixing in personal projects with paid work. when i do this paid work always comes first and i make that clear from the start.